Traceroute provides a fascinating insight into the paths which internet page queries take via various paths around the globe.

Interestingly, a recent edition of The Age reported that several underwater telephone and internet cables had been damaged, prompting me to think that this would impact on the traceroute results, especially since one of the cables links 33 countries (The Age, 2008).

TraceRoute to 134.7.179.53 [curtin.edu.au]

Hop  (ms)  (ms)  (ms)     IP Address  Host name
1  11  6  6    72.249.0.65    -
2  7  6  6    209.249.122.73  209.249.122.73.available.above.net
3  7  6  6    64.125.26.213  ge-2-0-0.mpr2.dfw2.us.above.net
4  12  13  11    64.125.26.134  so-1-1-0.mpr4.iah1.us.above.net
5  42  42  42    64.125.25.18  so-1-1-0.mpr4.lax9.us.above.net
6  44  43  42    64.124.200.234    -
7  193  192  193     202.158.194.157  so-4-0-0.bb1.b.syd.aarnet.net.au
8  214  223  233     202.158.194.33  so-2-0-0.bb1.a.mel.aarnet.net.au
9  223  223  222     202.158.194.17  so-2-0-0.bb1.a.adl.aarnet.net.au
10 25 254  249     202.158.194.5  so-0-1-0.bb1.a.per.aarnet.net.au
11  250  250  249     202.158.198.178  gigabitethernet0.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au
12  251  250  249     202.158.198.186  gw1.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au
13  Timed out  Timed out  Timed out         -
14  Timed out  Timed out  Timed out         -
15  Timed out  Timed out  Timed out         -
16  256  262  257     134.7.179.53  -
Trace complete

Result: The traceroute above indicates 16 hops were taken to travel from the http://network-tools.com site to curtin.edu.au

The average time taken was just over 1.7 seconds. The IP address of the hostname is curtin.edu.au is identified as: 134.7.179.53. I used the Ping utility on the http://network-tools.com site to ping the curtin.edu.au address. This took roughly the same time (averaged over 10 pings) of 253.1 ms.

I attempted to traceroute the curtin.edu.au address from my computer but initially received the following problem:

tracert 134.7.179.53

Tracing route to 134.7.179.53 over a maximum of 30 hops
1     2 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  mygateway1.ar7 [10.1.1.1]
2    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  meb4.ba.optusnet.com.au [198.142.129.4]
3    17 ms    17 ms    18 ms  meb4-unk1-447.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.57.65]
4    19 ms  mygateway1.ar7 [10.1.1.1]  reports: Destination protocol unreachable.
Trace complete.

It turned out my firewall was preventing a successful traceroute call so after adjusting the firewall settings, a positive traceroute result was achievable.

tracert 134.7.179.53

Tracing route to 134.7.179.53 over a maximum of 30 hops
1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  mygateway1.ar7 [10.1.1.1]
2    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  meb4.ba.optusnet.com.au [198.142.129.4]
3    16 ms    17 ms    17 ms  meb4-unk1-447.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.57.65]
4    18 ms    19 ms    19 ms  sun2-ge12-0-0-821.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.29.156.13]
5    18 ms    19 ms    17 ms  sun5-unk8-1.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.160.230]
6    18 ms    19 ms    19 ms  61.88.144.117
7   200 ms   202 ms   102 ms  61.88.226.121
8    64 ms    64 ms    63 ms  61.88.226.121
9    64 ms    64 ms    64 ms  AARNET.o6ssc76fe.optus.net.au [61.88.166.134]
10    64 ms    64 ms    64 ms  ge-1-0-3.bb1.a.per.aarnet.net.au [202.158.198.1]
11    63 ms    64 ms    64 ms  gigabitethernet0.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au [202.158.198.178]
12    68 ms    65 ms    63 ms  gw1.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au [202.158.198.186]
13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
16    65 ms    65 ms    66 ms  134.7.179.53
Trace complete.

The average time taken was less than a second from my computer to curtin.edu.au. The two traceroute calls made the same number of hops, which I found unusual since I thought being in Australia, my computer would take less hops to reach the curtin.edu.au address.

Next time I can’t reach a site, I’ll be using traceroute and/or ping to check whether it’s down or if it’s just me!

Reference:

Web partially restored after cable cut, 21 December 2008, viewed 21 December 2008, <http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/web-partially-restored-after-cable-cut/2008/12/21/1229794224240.html>.